Friday, 5 March, 2004

We will continue to base the devotions on “God for a Secular Culture” by Jurgen Moltmann.



Here’s what happens when we apply the principle of likeness to “other people, other things, and the Wholly Other God.” (#1 was covered on Wednesday, #2 on Thursday)

3. Applied to God, the ‘likeness’ principle leads either to the divinization of human beings or to the humanization of God. …As Feurbach’s modern criticism of religion shows, it even makes it (religion) narcissistic. Like the beautiful youth Narcissus, modern human beings, wherever they may turn – whether it be to other people, to other ‘nature’, or to the Wholly Other of the divine – always see everywhere only their own reflection.



In many ways it is easy to understand that we would be involved in such projection. It is also frightening to come to the realization that we would define or see God in our ‘likeness.’ Then again, so often, the God of Grace and Glory is not allowed to be such a God to us because we are so often a people of judgment, vengeance, and threat. Just listen to the stories of how people depict God. Even though God may be talked about in loving terms and called a loving God, keep listening…it often becomes a story filled with condition and exceptions….that is…a god like us.



Connection: Listen to how we speak of God and the way others speak. It would be a good exercise in listening to try and get people to talk about their idea of God and see what sort of God you hear being described.



Lord God, you are beyond us and yet you are always defined as being “with us.” Within our faithful contemplation this day lead us to see the bit more of the expansiveness of your grace and love. Amen.